Connacht Tribune
Crafty lot showcase their wares at Gift Fair
Lifestyle – Up to seventy stands to show off artisan food, crafts and design at Local Food and Craft Gift Fair in Galway this weekend. Judy Murphy charts its development from small beginnings.
The sixth annual Local Food and Craft Gift Fair, organised by Galway Local Enterprise Office (LEO), will take place this weekend in the Black Box Theatre with 70 stands showcasing artisan food, crafts and design. All are for sale. It’s one initiative of Galway LEO to support start-ups and small to medium size businesses. The organisation also provides financial support and mentoring as well as workshops, courses and networking opportunities. The annual Food and Craft Gift Fair is one of the most popular and best-known of LEO’S events and this year’s features a mix of new and previous participants. Resin artist Ciara O’Neill is a first-timer as are Nigel and Magaly Murry of Gran Grans food, while woodturners, Ambrose and Bríd O’Halloran are veterans of the event.
Food is an intrinsic part of the LEO Fair and a new addition this year is Gran Grans Foods, run by Nigel and Magaly Murray. Gran Grans make a range of sauces, dressings, dips, chutneys, preserves in the custom-designed kitchen of their Kilchreest home. The company’s is named for Nigel’s granny, whose passion for cooking helped inspire him to become a chef.
After training in Athlone IT, Nigel travelled the world and met Peruvian-born Magaly in Venice. He was a sous chef on a cruise ship and she was PA to the cruise director. Nigel travelled to Peru to ask Magaly’s father for her hand in marriage, despite the fact that he spoke no Spanish and that her father didn’t speak English. But all went well and they lived in Lima for 10 years, where they ran the country’s first Irish pub, which opened in 1997.
Eventually, however, theyrelocated to Ireland so their three children could be educated here. They settled in Kilchreest, between Gort and Loughrea, and Nigel worked as head chef in the Ardilaun House Hotel and also in Glenlo Abbey among other places.
He enjoyed work, but being a chef in the hospitality industry doesn’t lend itself to family life. So, in 2014, he and Magaly decided on a new direction and Gran Grans artisan food was born.
Nigel now manages the rugby team his 17-year-old son Brendan plays for, which he couldn’t have done in his previous life.
Nigel produces Gran Grans sauces, chutneys and preserves and Magaly looks after labelling and packaging.
They grow herbs and vegetables on an acre of land and these are used in their range of foods.
Nigel’s first foray into sauce-making involved mint, apple and horseradish – they’d observed that most people were using Colman’s and felt it was a niche they could target. Since then they’ve expanded, with failures as well as successes along the way.
“We’ve trialled stuff that hasn’t worked but all our products are now tried and tested,” says Nigel.
Meanwhile, Magaly’s “great eye for detail” is reflected in the tasteful packaging.
Their produce is free from preservatives, artificial colourings and flavourings and Gran Grans also has an extensive gluten-free range.
Nigel praises LEO for its support in areas such as mentoring, grants and microfinance.
“They have skill and expertise we don’t have and it’s great to be able to tap into that.”
Gran Grans took part in Galway Food Festival earlier this year and are part of the SuperValu Academy. They are distributed via SuperValu and Nestor’s supermarkets and are in McCambridges and Morton’s in Galway City. They’ll be available at the Black Box this weekend, as part of the annual LEO showcase.
The Local Food, Craft and Gift Fair is at the Black Box from 10am-6pm on Saturday and 11am-5pm on Sunday. Admission free.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
